The Agriculture and Livestock Confederation of Brazil organised a meeting of representatives of Mercosur’s private sector with the main EU negotiator, Ms Sandra Gallina, and South American negotiators.

Friday 13 October 2017 (4 months 9 days ago)

In the meeting, aspects of the commercial agreement between the countries of the two blocs were discussed, and the members of Mercosur described the feeling of ‘disappointment’ regarding the agricultural offer of the Europeans, deemed essential for the signing of the agreement.

The main criticism is focused on the export quotas established for ethanol (600,000 tonnes) and beef (70,000 tonnes). These figures are lower than those agreed on more than 10 years ago, when negotiations were interrupted.

According to Ms Sandra Gallina, “The debate regarding ethanol and beef is difficult right now in Europe. It is not a problem having to do with Mercosur, but an internal political issue. There are other items that are on the table, such as orange juice, maize, chicken and pork. I think that this can be interesting, especially for Brazil.”

Currently, barely 8% of the agricultural exports in the world come from Mercosur and have an estimated value of USD 116 billion. On the other hand, the EU is the greatest exporter of food in the world.